A normal winter’s day in Lehde …
There is no great excitement among the Lehd people when you talk to them about winter. Sebastian and Anja Kilka run the “Mutschenhof” and are prepared for almost all weather conditions. “We live in the midst of and with nature, we adapt to it when it’s not just sunshine and balmy summer breezes,” says Sebastian Kilka. For him and his wife Anja, caring for their animals currently involves a little more effort, but this is only partly due to the frosty weather, as care is always provided. “However, I have to keep the hole in the ice – the plaunik, as we call it here – clear several times a day so that I have fresh – albeit ice-cold – water for the animals. Of course, the self-service drinking trough doesn’t work when it’s freezing, so we sometimes have to do it ourselves with a bucket and jug.” Otherwise, a thick layer of straw in the barn keeps the animals warm. All the other pets have also become involved with the temperatures: The cats hardly ever come out of the boiler room, and certainly not peacock “Rex”, who never leaves his place at the top of the storage boiler. Kilkas take pity on the heat-loving animal and even hand it food.
Sebastian and Anja Kilka supply their cattle with drinking water from the ice hole, the Plaunik. Her dog Wanda is her constant companion on the farm.
Peacock “Rex” sits enthroned on top of the storage cauldron, in front of him the always well-filled food bowl.
Kilkas, like four other Lehder families, live “above the water”, as the locals call it. They have no direct access to land and usually use the boat as a ferry when they want to go to other shores. To avoid taking any risks, they placed two barges across the river at the start of the frost so that they could use them as a bridge. Two, because the wide Lehder Graben can be crossed more easily, albeit with a change of trains.
Taking the wheelbarrow to the other side: the best way to do this is with the help of a partner.
The barge or a temporary jetty bridge provides access to the mainland even in the iciest of winters, but the local residents don’t seem too happy about it. “Now anyone can actually enter the property, the stream no longer protects us from uninvited visitors,” says a slightly worried Christine Scholz. She lives with her husband Günter on the other side of the village on a property that can also only be reached by water. Günter Scholz has built a footbridge consisting of several segments, which he pushes across the Zeitzfließ when the frost sets in. It can later be pulled back to shore when there is no ice. “We have to plan our errands well and do everything in one day if possible. We still have to walk from the property to our garage in the center of the village – and that’s our biggest problem at the moment: the footpaths in Lehde are terribly slippery, we’re not the youngest anymore and have to be really careful!” say both of them, happy to have brought their shopping home in the handcart without any accidents.
In passing, Christine Scholz explained how the neighboring river “Suez Canal” got its name: “In 1956, my father Karl Richter observed the dredging work on the still nameless river, which was being extended and widened. There was constant talk in the news at the time of a Suez Canal crisis, an opening for shipping. ‘Call it the Suez Canal,’ he shouted to the hydraulic engineers – and it stayed that way!”
Günter and Christine Scholz on their way to the village.
The rivers are currently frozen to varying degrees, some not at all. The quieter alleyways, such as Kilkas, are tread-proof, but just a few meters further on it can be a completely different story. There is no ice cover at all on the “Merry Pike”, much to the advantage of the waterfowl. Even the shy cormorants hunt for fish here – an unthinkable sight in summer!
However, Lehde has safe alternatives for ice skaters: The meadows, which are extensively flooded during the winter waterlogging, are ideal for ice skating, and it’s not just the people of Lehde who make use of them. Families from Lübbenau and the surrounding area also make use of this safe ice skating opportunity – at their own risk, of course, but this seems calculable.
Kendy Konzack from Kolkwitz romps across the Lehder ice with her children Fabienne and Pierre.
Peter Becker, 10.02.2026
